[SOLVED] Steadily increasing RAM usage in fresh Win10 Edu install (ID'd as memory leak with Killer e2400 network adapter)

[McFettnippel]

---Conclusion and fix for MSI and other motherboards using a Killer e2200 or e2400 network adapter---

It is definitely related to the Killer e2400 Network driver, the trouble seems to be caused by interference between the driver and Windows's integrated Network Data Usage monitoring. It fills up the non-paged pool which you can see in the Task Manager, and the culprit itself can be identified by using the Windows Driver Kit 8.1 and its program poolmon.

After uninstalling the MSI-delivered "pure" Killer driver and replacing it with the stock one from the Killer download page (small .inf file), it doesn't seem to be happening anymore. Normally for each GB I'd download there would be going at least 500MB into the non-paged pool, this seems to have stopped now. 4GB DL of Cities: Skylines brought a mere 4MB into the pool.

---Original Post---
Hey guys,

I recently finished my new Rig and only transferred the hard drives and SSDs (5 altogether) from my old one. Fresh install of Win10 Edu from USB and nice OC on CPU (6700k) and RAM stable on 3200 (4x8GB G.Skill TridentZ 3200 15-16-16-38). Mobo is a MSI Z170a Gaming M7, GPU an Asus GTX 980ti STRIX.

My problem is that after an hour or so usage of Windows and starting games like BF4 or Space Engineers (EDIT AFTER CONCLUSION: this is wrong, it is caused by download of huge files (GB and upwards, most noticably), my RAM keeps filling up really fast, like 0.5GB per minute, without any program showing up in task manager or resource monitor. As I have 32 gigs, it doesn't seem to be a problem even if it gets really high, but I would like to know what could cause this, as I didn't have it on my old rig with Windows 7 to 10 Home upgrade. Idle usage is ~2,7GB, but as stated fills up after gaming.

I didn't download anything from suspicious sites, only used ninite and Steam/Origin for programs and games. Does anyone have an idea what this is?

Cheers

Edit: After rebooting just now, my RAM starts up at 14GB, slowly increasing. I dont know what the heck this is... Malwarebytes doesn't find anything, neither does Windows Defender.

 

[basroil]

Does "lsass.exe" happen to be using all the memory?

 

[McFettnippel]

Can't find that process anywhere, so I guess not. If I sort by RAM usage, nothing out of the order shows up, it just does not display the program which uses all of the RAM...

 

[basroil]

What you are describing is basically impossible outside of a hidden virus. Open the task manager, go to details, and then show all processes (if you aren't running on administrator)

 

[McFettnippel]

Okay, gonna search for something tomorrow morning. I have been virus free for like ten years now, always rated common sense and reason above anti malware suits. What I don't get is where I may have infected my new rig in the mere hours of its existence since I did not visit sites that would deviate from anything setup relevant... The only hard drive I didn't format when putting into the new rig is my old files drive which contains mostly all of my documents and pictures, but as I said there weren't any problems in the old rig.

 

[McFettnippel]

I am running on administrator.

I am trying a solution right now: I took every ram stick out, let the PC boot, and put them back in different order. Right now I am trying to see if there is any change, maybe it was due to too low VCCSA setting. I am going to post back if there is a result.

 

[basroil]

I am running on administrator.

I am trying a solution right now: I took every ram stick out, let the PC boot, and put them back in different order. Right now I am trying to see if there is any change, maybe it was due to too low VCCSA setting. I am going to post back if there is a result.

You still haven't answered the question, what does the details tab say is taking up memory?

 

[McFettnippel]

Dang, I missclicked "Choose best answer" instead of answer on my phone - sorry about that. Can I change it?

I was not able to identify any process that might eat up all the ram, but I believe putting that additional voltage into the IMC maybe made it read off the ram usage correctly, and it all was due to too low voltage on the System Agent.

 

[basroil]

Dang, I missclicked "Choose best answer" instead of answer on my phone - sorry about that. Can I change it?

I was not able to identify any process that might eat up all the ram, but I believe putting that additional voltage into the IMC maybe made it read off the ram usage correctly, and it all was due to too low voltage on the System Agent.

Highly unlikely voltage changes screwed with used ram. Most likely it's an lsass leak, but until you post a screenshot of your task manager's details tab sorted by memory use, we won't know any more.

 

[McFettnippel]

Sorry that it took me so long. I found the right tab now, it is sometimes a little hard to find the correct stuff if your PC doesn't run in English... Nevertheless, lsass.exe wasn't showing any high RAM activity.

http://imgur.com/a/xWQxO

There you can see all of the processes in the Details tab. It's in German, but I think the vital parts are universal.

Cheers

 

[basroil]

You have a hell of a lot of garbage constantly running, but your total RAM usage doesn't seem to be high at all. Are you sure that used ram in the performance tab is showing 14GB+ of use? (picture of that would be nice too.)

 

[McFettnippel]

You have a hell of a lot of garbage constantly running, but your total RAM usage doesn't seem to be high at all. Are you sure that used ram in the performance tab is showing 14GB+ of use? (picture of that would be nice too.)

Sorry, it did not happen afterwards anymore. It was only on 14GB after restart when it reached 29GB usage before, but after that it didn't seem to fill up anymore. Right now it fills up again being at 6,4GB, but I am downloading Metro LL via steam, so that may cause the usage. Will update after the download is complete.

What do you mean by garbage? Are there programs that I shouldn't be using?

 

[basroil]

What do you mean by garbage? Are there programs that I shouldn't be using?

Mostly just the fact you have ~5 updaters for things that rarely get updates, and nvstreamer type stuff that you don't need unless you have a shield device. Also, you have Java and teamviewer, which should never be on your system unless absolutely necessary

 

[McFettnippel]

Okay, I am gonna sort that out later. I may have found a solution, though. I am very positive that I do not have a virus and/or rootkit on my PC, as I have tried numerous different bootable and shielded AVs to scan for stuff and none of those found anything.

But, I noticed that e.g. at an idle usage of 9.9GB, I have 5.5GB of non-paged pool. On this forum here http://superuser.com/questions/949244/windows-10-high-memory-usage-unknown-reason
they tell you to install that Windows Driver Kit and follow the instructions. Gonna try that, reporting later.

And you were right, increasing the voltage didn't do anything.

Edit: So it is definitely related to the Killer e2400 Network driver, the trouble seems to be caused by interference between the driver and Windows's integrated Network Data Usage monitoring. I am trying to get one of both to stop messing with each other, and if I get it right, I'll edit again.

Edit II: So after uninstalling the MSI-delivered "pure" Killer driver and replacing it with the stock one from the Killer download page (small .inf file), it doesn't seem to be happening anymore. Normally for each GB I'd download there would be going at least 500MB into the non-paged pool, this seems to have stopped now. 4GB DL of Cities: Skylines brought a mere 4MB into the pool.

Anyway, thanks alot for your help trying to figure this out, it was driving me mad! Turns out Killer "gaming" NICs are quite bad in comparison to good intel onboard NICs. Especially this annoying problem which apparently affects many different users and is quite hard to track down.

 

[basroil]

Anyway, thanks alot for your help trying to figure this out, it was driving me mad! Turns out Killer "gaming" NICs are quite bad in comparison to good intel onboard NICs. Especially this annoying problem which apparently affects many different users and is quite hard to track down.

People don't trust the Intel network stuff enough... They make industrial/enterprise grade networking equipment so they know how to make devices that don't have too many issues (though every once in a while they will have a pretty bad bug like the old pentium's bad math tables or the more recent scheduling timer issue).

Good to know your issue is solved though, and I'll keep in mind that driver bug (which is surprisingly similar to the lsass leak I mentioned, but much easier to fix)

 

[McFettnippel]

Yeah, once I knew what it was and where it came from, it was quite simple to fix. It just never crossed my mind that MSI would include faulty driver software on their DVDs and not giving the newest update option online. The supplied driver even brought down my network speed from normally ~95 Mb/s to ~50... And the "updated" one from the MSI Homepage included this nice memory leak. Awesome.